Romney remains Republicans favourite in New Hampshire

By
Euronews

Polls continue to indicate a lead for Republican presidential candidate hopeful Mitt Romney as voting in the New Hampshire primary takes place on Tuesday.

The other main contenders – Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman – may have been cherishing the chance to capitalise on a Romney gaffe where he appeared to say he enjoyed firing people just hours before the poll.

In fact, rival Huntsman drew with Romney in the midnight ballot in the small New Hampshire village of Dixville Notch.

Nevertheless, the former governor of neighbouring Massachusetts remains the favourite to run against Barack Obama in November following victory in the Iowa caucuses last week.

Speaking from New Hampshire, euronews correspondent Stefan Grobe said: “There is some evidence that many of the independent voters will side with Mitt Romney who is here on home turf. He leads all the polls, but in recent days, his lead has melted away slightly. This is probably due to the massive wave of attacks by his conservative opponents – from Newt Gingrich to Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman. Well, that won’t cost him victory here in New Hampshire, but it could raise doubts about whether Romney will actually be the Republicans’ inevitable choice.”